latest in the jodi arias trial. Her lawyers are now arguing that the prosecutor committed misconduct by signing autographs and posing for pictures with fans outside the court. As they make the case that arias killed her ex-boyfriend because she was the victim of abuse. Abc's ryan owens has the latest from phoenix. Ma'am, were you crying when you were shooting him? I don't remember. Reporter: If you thought the testimony in the jodi arias trial was outrageous, wait until you hear the price tag. Abc news has learned arizona taxpayers have shelled out $1.4 million so far for her defense. She starts to wonder if he cares about her. Reporter: A good chunk of that change is going to domestic VIOLENCE EXPERT alice LaViolette who spent 44 hours interviewing arias in jail. She was paid $250 an hour for that and now 300 bucks an hour for her expert testimony. But he's in the priesthood of the mormon church so he's seen as a spiritual mentor. ter: LaVIOLETTE NEVER Met the victim in this case, travis alexander. But she read the mormon businessman's e-mails, text messages and listened to phone sex conversations he had with his killer ex-girlfriend. Based on that and the word of the admitted liar, she says arias was a battered woman. They advised her to move on from the relationship, that mr. Alexander has been abusive to women. Reporter: Jodi arias never reported any abuse to police or her family. The prosecutor believes she's making it up. He says in june of 2008 she shot and repeatedly stabbed alexander in a jealous rage and deserves the death penalty. Arias claims it was self-defense. The desperate act of a woman who had been abused since childhood. Jodi's mother didn't protect her from her father. Reporter: Laviolette continues her testimony next week then we'll face what's sure to be an intense cross-examination from a prosecutor who believes she's trying to put the victim on trial. For "good morning america," ryan owens, abc news, phoenix. Okay, more now from our "gma" legal analyst, dan abrams. New twists in the case every single day. Is a prosecutor acting out if he signs autographs outside the courtroom? In these high-profile cases, I know this is going to sound unbelievable to some people, but the lawyers become kind of rock stars. People are watching these cases day after day. They get to know these people and I can tell you this certainly happened in the o.J. Simpson case but you do have to be careful. That doesn't mean it's misconduct. It's not misconduct for the prosecutor to not blow off someone who walks up to him and asks to take a picture. On the other hand he has to be careful there are no jurors around. He does have to be careful about what the impression is going to be to a judge when he or she hears about something like this so I would say it is not misconduct, it is something i needs to be aware of and most importany he needs to be around when he's doing it. What kind of impression is this domestic violence expert making? It's a comparatively good witness and I say comparatively certainly better than the last psychological witness that jodi arias called. I mean, you've got her aching some pretty definitive statements here about travis alexander being -- even though she never met him. Being abusive according to his friends, et cetera. You may understand now why the defense put the witnesses in the order they did. There's a lot of questions about why was jodi arias not the last witness? Well, maybe the reason was because they were afraid of how jodi arias would come across on the witness stand and now you've got this domestic violence expert that they wanted to end their case with but expect a really tough cross-examination. That's likely next week. Dan abrams, thanks very much.

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